Velvet Vampire

When doing some research on female horror directors, I only knew of one off the top of my head and that was Kathryn Bigelow who directed Near Dark. But I didn’t realize that there was someone who predated her and that was Stephanie Rothman. She was hired by Roger Corman and got her first taste with Blood Bath in 1966. She would later direct the cult hit The Velvet Vampire. Rothman came up with the cool idea of the female vampire being the protagonist rather than the victim. The film fails on the horror level, however, as Rothman put too much emphasis on the comedy aspect of the film. Commercially the movie didn’t do well at the time, earning its ‘b-movie’ moniker as Roger Corman would place it under a double bill throughout its theatrical release.

As you would expect from a 1970s vampire movie directed bya woman…a lot of ‘dreamy’ scenes.